Reinventing the Reading Experience

Overview

Chronicle Media publishes long-form journalism reaching 2 million monthly readers. Their content was award-winning; their website was not. Slow load times, intrusive ads, and poor mobile experience were driving readers away—and with them, revenue.

The Challenge

Publishing sites face a painful tension: ads pay the bills, but ads destroy the experience. Chronicle’s previous approach prioritized short-term ad revenue, resulting in:

• 8+ second load times on mobile
• 12 ad units per article page
• Core Web Vitals failing across the board
• 62% of mobile readers bouncing before content loaded

The irony: poor experience was reducing ad revenue because readers weren’t staying long enough to see ads.

Our Approach

Performance as Strategy

We reframed the project around a counterintuitive insight: fewer, better ad placements would generate more revenue. The math worked if we could dramatically increase time on site.

Technical strategy:

• Static generation with edge caching
• Lazy loading for ads and non-critical content
• Modern image formats with responsive sizing
• Minimal JavaScript (90% reduction)

Editorial Design

Chronicle’s content deserved presentation worthy of its quality. We designed a reading experience that:

• Prioritized typography and readability
• Used generous whitespace to reduce cognitive load
• Integrated ads naturally within the content flow
• Provided clear navigation without distraction

Typography was central: we selected a custom serif for body text optimized for extended reading, with careful attention to line length, line height, and paragraph spacing.

Ad Strategy Redesign

Working with Chronicle’s revenue team, we redesigned the ad approach:

Before: 12 ad units, aggressive formats, poor viewability After: 6 premium placements, native integration, high viewability

The key insight: advertisers pay more for viewable ads. By improving experience, we improved viewability, which commanded higher CPMs.

Progressive Enhancement

We built for resilience:

• Core content accessible without JavaScript
• Graceful degradation on slow connections
• Offline reading capability for saved articles
• AMP versions for search traffic

The Outcome

Six months post-launch:

• -73% page load time (8.2s → 2.2s on mobile)
• +45% time on site (readers engaging more deeply)
• +28% ad revenue despite fewer ad units
• +34% pages per session (better navigation, faster loads)

Core Web Vitals went from failing to exemplary:

• LCP: 1.4s (target: under 2.5s)
• FID: 8ms (target: under 100ms)
• CLS: 0.03 (target: under 0.1)

“We proved that quality experience and ad revenue aren’t opposed—they’re aligned. Our readers are happier, and our business is stronger.”

— James Morrison, Digital Director, Chronicle Media

The Virtuous Cycle

Better experience → Longer sessions → Higher ad viewability → Better CPMs → Less need for aggressive ads → Even better experience.

This project showed that sustainable publishing requires treating readers as the asset they are.